Poultry Work at the Georgia Normal and Industrial 

 College, Milledgeville, Ga. 



Edwin H. Scott 



One of the recent tendencies in education has been in the direc- 

 tion of teaching boys and girls subjects more closely akin to their 

 life work. 



One of the newer courses at the Georgia Normal and Industrial 

 College illustrates that trend very clearly. 



Two years ago the subject of poultry raising was offered to the 

 members of the senior class under the direction of a young woman 

 trained in two of our best agricultural colleges and who sub- 

 sequently conducted a poultry farm of her own. 



Ten incubators and brooders of various makes were purchased, 

 houses and yards were built and the course was started. 



A selection was made of four breeds namely the White Leg- 

 horn, White Wyandotte, Buff Orpington, and Light Brahma. 



From the very beginning our aim was to make the course 

 thoroughly practical. Therefore, all phases of the work, except 

 the cleaning of the brooders and houses, were performed by the 

 girls. 



As a result of this, many and varied were the experiences of 

 teacher and chickens. The brooder and incubator lamps would 

 smoke — then the girl whose job it was at that particular time to 

 run the said machine must stop and clean it out. 



If the reader has ever been in a similar position and known 

 how hard and dirty is the work involved in taking apart and 

 cleaning a lamp — your sympathy will go out to the girl — -and to 

 the chickens. 



However, it took surprisingly few lessons of this kind to cause 

 the machines to be more carefully adjusted and the smoking cease. 



The students ran an incubator, a brooder, took care of setting 

 hens, chicks, and yards of laying hens. 



All food was weighed, mixed, accurate records of all kinds kept, 

 and cost of the various operations reckoned. 



From a hap-hazzard, happy-go-lucky method of doing the work 

 usual in many homes it was brought down to as nearly a scientific 

 problem as possible. 



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